


Stressful

by sanctuary_for_all



Series: Partners [79]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Combined team because I can, Established Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Humor, I Don't Even Know, M/M, Talk about things earlier in the series, Team Bonding, but also feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:40:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29395650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: Even the most stressful stories are more relaxing in retrospect. (Partners-verse combined team fluff)
Relationships: Five-0 Team & Danny "Danno" Williams, Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Series: Partners [79]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/105629
Comments: 12
Kudos: 133





	Stressful

As it turned out, neither Tani or Junior had ever heard the story of how Steve and Danny got together.

This bit of information was discovered in the aftermath of one of the big family dinners, when the adults sat around talking and the kids were playing a complicated game on the lawn. Danny was, unfortunately, not the one who discovered this, since his post-meal surrounded-by-family contentment had left him deeply distracted with trying to figure out what exactly it was the kids were playing. Kalea, being barely into her toddler years, didn’t seem that much clearer about the situation than Danny was, but Brandon, Noah and Ailani were all gently guiding her along in whatever it was they were doing.

Danny had just about decided that aliens _and_ detectives were somehow involved when he processed Kono’s enthusiastic, not-so-slightly evil “Oh, you have to hear this story!” Brotherly instincts set off all kinds of alarm bells – little sisters could _never_ be trusted to tell certain stories – and he checked back into the conversation just in time to correct some of the more egregious falsehoods. Thankfully, Lou, Renee, Jerry and Mila had all gone home by that point, or he was sure the falsehoods would have been much, much worse.

(Steve, unsurprisingly, was desperately unhelpful about all of it. When you were Superman you didn't have to worry about little things like dignity, and he listened to every argument and counterargument with a lazy, pleased smile. Knowing him, he was probably busy enjoying the flashbacks.)

Tani and Junior both listened with the rapt, delighted attention of children hearing embarrassing stories about their parents. When Danny and Kono were busy arguing over the finer points of the wrap-up – she and Chin had not been playing romantic background music during the kiss, no matter what she was claiming now – Tani leaned back against the picnic table with a laugh. “Now that is an epic love story. I wish I could have been there to take incriminating video.”

“Not me.” Junior held up a hand, doing a much better job of hiding his amusement than Tani. “It sounded like it was a pretty stressful night for everyone involved, even without the serial killer.”

Chin, one arm securely around Malia, pointed an approving finger at Junior. “You are a wise man. When these two are depressed, you do not want to be _anywhere_ in the immediate vicinity.”

Kono nodded. “After we saw the kiss, there were about 15 minutes where we were both really hopeful they’d finally get their act together. But then Danny left, and Steve became—”

“Brooding,” Danny cut in. “A melancholy Byronic hero angsting tragically off into the distance.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You weren’t there. You were hiding out at home.”

Danny shrugged, rubbing his leg back and forth against Steve’s. They’d moved over their beach chairs, but he was kind of wishing they’d stolen some of the bench seating at the picnic table. Arguing might be automatic instinct, but cuddling was much more fun. “Maybe, but before that point I spent a lot of time watching that man brood.”

Steve shifted his own leg enough to rub his toes against Danny’s ankle, his smile widening briefly. “You know, brooding actually means being really protective of your eggs and wanting them to hatch.”

“Which actually fits you even better than the usual definition.” Deciding that his husband might be right about that whole dignity thing, Danny shifted their chairs close enough that his arm pressed up against Steve’s. “Though admittedly not in this one case.”

Steve's smile widened even more. “I’m going to consider that a compliment.”

Danny couldn’t help but return the smile, languid contentment settling back over him like a blanket. “I meant it as one.” He threaded their fingers together, and Steve's eyes went soft as he lifted their joined hands to press a kiss against Danny's.

Kono gave them both a disgruntled look, then turned back to Tani and Junior. “We had to deal with this for years, you two. Years." She threw a hand out in Steve and Danny's direction to emphasize the point. "You were lucky you both came in during the ridiculously sappy married couple era.”

“I didn’t think they were that bad,” Adam said mildly, fighting a smile when Kono turned to glare at him.

“Like those old screwball comedies,” Malia added, her own smile widening when Kono shifted her glare to him. Chin’s own mouth turned up at the corners, but he did a much better job of hiding it from Kono.

“That is because you didn’t have to watch it all day, every day,” Kono countered, turning back to Tani and Junior. “You know how you’re watching a television show sometimes and you just want to scream at two characters to kiss already? It was like that, but in real life.”

Junior’s brow lowered. “It wasn’t like that with us, was it?”

“No,” Chin said reassuringly. “You two were like puppies. Much less stressful.”

Now Tani’s brow lowered as she turned to Junior. “I’m suddenly not sure if that’s better.”

Malia leaned her head against Chin’s shoulder. “It’s not better or worse. Everyone has their own stories.”

“It's probably safer, though,” Kono added. “When people ask how for the moment when you two got together, it won’t turn into a multi-part story full of arguments that takes up the better part of an hour."

Tani settled back, clearly still disgruntled. "Multi-part stories full of arguments are the best kind." She turned to Danny, pointing an accusing finger at him. "I'm still annoyed you never told me about the moment you realized you were in love with your lunatic. You're supposed to be my love guru."

Danny shrugged. "It wasn't exactly relevant to your romantic experience." Then he sobered a little, remembering. "Besides, that wasn't the moment I realized I was in love with Steve. It was the moment I realized I wanted to have sex with him for the next 50 or 60 years. I'd already been sitting with the love revelation for months."

He didn't think anything about the comment until he realized just how quiet it had gotten. He looked up to realize the rest of the team was staring at him like he'd said something completely impossible, enough that they were still having a little bit of trouble processing it. Even Steve looked liked this was brand-new information that had broken his brain a little bit.

He stared back at them, confused and trying not to feel defensive. "What?"

"Sorry, brother." Chin's voice was gentle, but off to the side he could see Kono barely restrain the urge to burst out with something. "We didn't mean to make you feel like you'd said something wrong. You just surprised us."

Malia looked sympathetic. "We honestly thought you just never realized."

"I'm also slightly confused," Tani added, looking genuinely lost. "If you'd figured out you were in love with him, why didn't the big bisexual awakening happen right then?"

Danny sighed, trying to piece together an explanation from feelings he'd never actually put into words before. "At the time, I didn't call it being 'in love.' I called it being 'dangerously more emotionally attached to my work partner than I ever have been to anyone else, including my girlfriend and ex-wife.'" His expression turned rueful. "But they basically work out to the same thing when you get rid of all the extra words, so I feel it counts."

Everyone just stared at him that much harder. Finally, Kono couldn't hold back anymore. "When did this happen? How? And why didn't you _say_ anything?"

Sudden memory connected in Tani's eyes. "Wait. You _did_ say that you were pining and he had no idea."

"I did." He felt Steve squeeze his hand, and he turned to see his husband looking at him with those big eyes that said he was maybe about to cry, but that it was happy tears so that was okay. Danny's throat tightened. "It wasn't that long, especially compared to you. I'm definitely still the oblivious one in this marriage."

Steve squeezed Danny's hand, looking overwhelmed. "I still can't believe I had no idea."

Danny sighed. "You were a little distracted with Catherine getting kidnapped."

The weird silence fell again. "This is the time Lou always talks about, right?" Adam asked after a moment. "The one where you two broke his prisoner out and exchanged him for Catherine?"

Junior's eyes widened. "The one with McGarrett's helicopter jump?"

Danny nodded. "The very one." He shook his head. "Not my favorite day on the job, overall."

Now Kono just looked confused. "I still have no idea how that led to you realizing you 'dangerously more emotionally attached' to Steve. I would have expected you to be more focused on the recklessness of it, or the fact that it was technically illegal."

"More than technically," Chin corrected. "But it wasn't the first time we'd had to do something like that."

Malia squeezed her husband's leg supportively as Danny continued with the story. "Oh, I was. I had a whole monologue about how potentially fatal and career ending this was, and more importantly that it probably wasn't going to work anyway. I was fully prepared to argue each and every one of those points, but then I realized that it wasn't just him going into lunatic superhero mode. He was doing whatever he had to not to lose anyone else. And suddenly, I didn't have an argument anymore."

Danny swallowed, eyes on the group but his thumb tracing back and forth along Steve's hand. "In that moment, I realized that was how it was going to be forever. To keep him safe, to keep him from being hurt, I'd do absolutely anything. No matter what it cost me." He let out a breath. "After that, I no longer asked myself why I could never manage an 'I love you' for Gabby."

The silence that fell after that was deep enough that the kids picked up on it. They stopped playing, turning to look at them. "Is everything okay?" Brandon asked carefully.

Steve cleared his throat, swiping at wet eyes with his free hand. "We're okay, Tracker," he managed, voice scratchy. "Danno's just saying really emotional things and getting us all teary."

Accepting this as a reasonable answer, the kids went back to playing. When they were once again suitably distracted, Steve leaned over and gave Danny an intense kiss. When they broke apart, Steve leaned his forehead against Danny's. "If only I'd known," he said thickly.

Danny's own eyes stung. He thought about the hospital bedside wedding they'd been witnesses to, the one that had made him finally break up with Gabby. He knew what it meant to love like that, and he couldn't hold her back when he knew he didn't feel that way about her. "We both had a pretty serious timing problem back then."

Finally, Junior broke the rest of the group's silence. "So, just to be clear," he said carefully. "When all this was happening, you still hadn't figured out that you wanted to sleep with him yet?"

"It was more like I hadn't admitted it to myself." Danny smiled a little, eyes still on Steve's. "But no, at the time I had not been aware of that key piece of information."

Junior let out a breath. "That sounds even more stressful than the seriel killer."

Danny couldn't stop the laugh that slipped out. "You could say that."

Understanding lit Chin's eyes. "I _do_ remember you being even more short-tempered than usual back then." He nodded at Danny. "I'm retroactively sympathetic. I thought you were just jealous of Catherine and didn't want to admit it to yourself."

Danny groaned, shifting enough to lean his head against his shoulder. Steve had, of course, slumped down enough to be exactly the right height. "Oh, that was also true."

He felt Steve's lips against his hair, voice warm even though it was still a little thick. "I have so many questions."

"You think _you_ have questions?" Kono finally burst out. "We could have had _months_ less pining than we did!"

Adam squeezed her arm. "You were technically out of the country for most of this."

"That doesn't matter!" Kono huffed. "I would have _known_. And it would have brought me _peace_."

Malia turned back to Tani with an amused expression. "Okay, maybe I was wrong. Some stories are much less stressful than others."

Tani made an exasperated noise. "This isn't stressful for _them_ – for those two, traumatic memories just inspire more PDA and gratuitous cuddling. No, their story is stressful for the _rest_ of us, because we had to wait this long to _hear_ it!"

He could hear the smile in Steve's voice. "You could have asked."

That set off another round of highly entertaining argument, but this time Danny felt no need to contribute. He was much too content right where he was.

It wasn't long before he felt Steve's lips against his hair again. "I could have asked too," he murmured. "I just never imagined it."

"You and me both." Danny shifted just enough to press his own kiss against Steve's shoulder. "Still, I'm glad it came out. You deserve to know how I felt, even though I was incredibly annoyed about it at the time."

Steve's voice was soft. "That's how I know you meant it." Then he stopped, like he was distracted by something, and when he spoke again he sounded confused. "Do you have _any_ idea what the kids' are playing?"

Danny just laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my [original fiction,](https://jennifferwardell.wixsite.com/mybooks) my [blog,](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)!


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